I fish them on 8 pound mono- all of my luck is with berkely gulp minnows, senkos, and hula grubs. I texas rig everything and  use a very small bullet weight so the bait kind of bounces along the bottom with the current.

does anyone use topwater frogs for smallmouth on rivers?

I guess i will jump right in with my first post    i only fish a river thats by my house  im not really big on fishing but i like river fishing   well i throw a frog sometimes on it   my favorite is the bronze jr.  i like it for bank weeds   just cast it over there and retrieve it  and those smallies will come up for it

o really?  cool  i have to try them this year    has anyone started fishing rivers yet this year?

does anyone use topwater frogs for smallmouth on rivers?

I have tried them on a creek I fish a lot with mild success. The Zarra Puppy in the bullfrog pattern can be killer there, however.

i fish creeks sometimes but i have never tried topwater anything on them   a buddy of mine fishes creeks all the time and he is going to try frogs this year on them    

New to the site but a smallie lover and this thread has helped me already with awesome info. Thanks guys and keep up the fantastic advice!

really thats awesome   welcome to BR

what color tubes does everyone use for river smallies?

Throw up river my friend and use control in your slack for tubes and such, it will up your catch big time.

yea ok  thats what i do but i never catch as many as everyone else that i see throwing tubes   i want to know what color everyone uses

junebug and green pumbkinseed are my favorites

Black blue flake,smeared in smelly jelly......

I use four colors for all my fishing, Green pumpkin, smoke purple, black neon, and rootbeer with a red and black fleck.  Can't go wrong with those four colors!

How about Sankos and Wacky Rigs in the river?

i love throwing wacky rigged senkos for smallies in rivers.  throw them i high percentage areas or once u have found some. i like to throw a crank or spinner until i find em then slay em with senkos and tubes

Ok great so I need to locate the fish with spinning or crank the hit with a sanko. What about T & C rigs? I don't have a boat yet so I am about to pick up some waders off ebay brand new Hogdman. Will these be safe in the river? So I should fish currents and rocks? What about under a bridge ther is more of them around then anything else

all depends on time of year and the depth of the water. Smallies will move into current when the water temp rises. They will go under bridges if it is deep.  Just try a lot of spots intil you figure out what the fish are doing